Coin counting machine



Dec. 2, 1947. w. e. HALFPAP ET AL com COUNTING MACHINE Filed June 22, 1946" 2 SheetsSheet l INVENTORS 1947- w. G. HALFPAP ET AL 2,432,010

COIN COUNTING MACHINE Filed June 22, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mm a W /m W 0 35 j r Fla. 3

Q zzg slvro es BY B ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 2, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COIN COUNTING MACHINE William G. Halfpap and Arnold R. Buchholz,

Watertown, Wis., assignors to Brandt Automatic Cashier Company, Watertown, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application June 22, 1946, Serial No. 678,608

4 Claims. 1

The invention relates to coin counting machines.

In coin counting machines of the type in which the coins are introduced into a hopper in which a revolving plate forms the bottom thereof, the plate as has heretofore been made has a top metal facing on which the coins are carried and moved outwardly under the action of centrifugal force to bring the coins to an adjustably gauged exit slot through which they discharge one at a time past a counter actuating member. It has been found that with the plates as usually constructed that there may be considerable slippage of the coins on the peripheral portion of the plate which acts to slow down the feeding of the coins to the counter actuating member. The object of the present invention is to greatly increase the feeding capacity of counting machines of the type above described by providing a plate having its peripheral portion provided with a surface or surfaces of material having a high coefiicient of friction, so that the coins will more readily adhere to this surface, and slippage of the coins relative to the plate especially as they are moved in the exit slot will be prevented.

The invention further consists in the several features hereinafter described and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a coin counting machine embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a detailed vertical sectional View taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1, parts being broken away;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation view of the coin feeding disk, parts being broken away and parts being shown in section;

Fig. 4 is a detailed vertical sectional view through the hopper taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

The coin counting machine embodying the invention is of the type shown and described in detail in the copending application for patent of Arnold R. Buchholz and Walter A. Bargang, for Coin counting machine, Serial No. 376,392, filed January 28, 1941, and therefore, only a general description of the machine will be given.

Referring to Fig. 1, the coin counting machine of the type in which the present invention can be used includes a casing 5 housing an electric motor 6 and supporting a hopper wall member I and a housing 8 for a vertically disposed shaft 9 on which a coin carrier or disk I is rotatably mounted. The motor 6 has its shaft ll connected by pulleys l2 and I3 and belt [4 with a shaft l5 carrying a skew gear l6 meshing with a similar gear I? on the shaft 9 whereby the carrier I9 is continuously driven.

The hopper wall member I is open at one point to form an eXit E to permit the discharge of coins from the hopper formed by said member and the carrier [0, and at this point a vertically adjustable exit control member I 8 is mounted and determines the effective height of exit slot, said member being adjustable relative to the carrier ID to accommodate coins of different denominations through the turning of a screw shaft 19 operatively connected thereto, but not shown in detail.

On its passage through the exit slot of the carrier the coin is moved into contact with a rotatable feed wheel l9 and past an adjustable gate 20 which determines the diameter of the coins that may be released from the carrier Ill into the discharge passage 2| including the adjustable gate 20 which is clamped in adjusted position by a clamping screw 22. The feed wheel l8 has a yielding peripheral portion 23 and is mounted so that its periphery is spaced a slight distance from the bottom of the passage 2| so as to engage the coins as they are discharged and carry them past a counterdrive wheel 24 associated with a counter C. After moving past the wheel 24, the coins pass down an inclined section 25 of the passage 2| into a tube 25 detachably connected with a discharge tube 21.

The feed wheel 19 is mounted on a shaft 28 connected through releasable clutch mechanism 29 with a pulley 30 connected by a belt 3| with a pulley 32 on the shaft l5, so that said wheel i9 is driven by the motor 6 whenever the clutch 29 is engaged.

All of the above described mechanism is, through the above referred to application, of known construction, but in this construction the coin carrier in the form of a dished disk has been made entirely of hard metal such as steel, and as a consequence it was found that the coins as they were carried outwardly by centrifugal force to the peripheral portion of the carrier had a tendency to slip as they moved through the region of the exit slot of the hopper, and this slowed up the delivery of coins to the discharge passage 21 past the counter drive wheel 24. According to the present invention, the surface of the carrier has been modified to provide areas in the peripheral portion of said carrier having a high coefiicient of friction, and these areas may be formed in various ways, and one of these has been shown as comprising a series of high frictional coefficient plugs or inserts 33 spaced apart and arranged in spaced circular rows with the plugs of one row staggered relative to those of the other row. As shown, the plugs are formed of live rubber, but wood, leather, lead or other high frictional resistance material may be used. It has been found that a carrier disk equipped with these high frictional areas greatly increases the productive output of this type of coin counting machine.

While the machine has been described and titled as a coin counting machine, it is obvious that it can be used for counting other articles, and therefore, the claims are not to be restricted by specific classification to a coin counting machine.

We desire it to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to any particular form or arrangement of parts except in so far as such limitations are included in the claims.

What we claim as our invention is:

1. In a counting machine including a hopper having a rotatable coin carrier forming the bottom thereof and by which the coins are carried to an exit slot connected with a passage formed i part by a feed wheel by which the coins are carried past and in driving contact with a counter drive wheel, that improvement which comprises forming the peripheral surface portion of said carrier with surface means having a higher frictional resistance than the body of said carrier to increase the delivery output of said carrier.

2. In a counting machine including a hopper having a rotatable coin carrier forming the bottom thereof and by which the coins are carried to an exit slot connected with a passage formed in part by a feed wheel by which the coins are carried past and in driving contact with a counter drive Wheel, that improvement which comprises forming the peripheral surface portion of said carrier with a series of isolated areas having a higher frictional resistance than the body of said carrier to increase the delivery output of said carrier.

3. A counting machine in accordance with claim 2 in which the areas of higher frictional resistance are formed of high friction spaced apart inserts arranged in spaced apart circular rows.

4. A counting machine in accordance with claim 2 in which the areas of higher frictional resistance are formed of high friction spaced apart inserts arranged in spaced apart rows with the inserts of one row staggered relative to those of another row.

WILLIAM G. HALFPAP. ARNOLD R. BUCHHOLZ. 

